In a darkened milk bar, Nick waits for customers who will never come

The old Olympia milk bar - a landmark on Parramatta Road at Stanmore - has kept sadly declining since it closed late last year.

The sign out front is full of gaps: "SNACK_, SMOKES, S_E_ _S," it reads. The window is partly boarded up. The awning is black with dirt.

The rundown exterior of the Olympia milk bar.Credit:Jessica Hromas

But anyone passing who has a moment to pay attention might see a figure moving in the shadows at the back of the shop. If they ever dropped in for a milkshake, tea or a quick meal after a movie when the Olympia was open, they will recognise him.

Eight months after its last customer, elderly owner Nicholas Fotiou still spends his days - apron on as though ready for work - at the Greek milk bar that has been his life.

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"Seven days a week," he says with a thick Greek-Australian accent.

Mr Fotiou might be sitting at one of the laminated tables. He could be moving between the shelves and the darkened room out back. Or he might be going through a batch of letters stashed in an old exercise book that includes correspondence about the milk bar's closure.

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An Inner West Council spokeswoman says that after a report from police that the awning was in danger of collapsing late last year, representatives inspected the Olympia and found the inside was in a state of disrepair.

"Council had no choice but to close the shop until repairs were carried out," she says.

So amongst the old milkshake makers, confectionery trays, boxes of ice-cream cones, an urn, an old cash register and cups covered with a layer of plastic, Mr Fotiou, half-hunched, grey-haired and intense, is alone.

"I've had troubles and troubles and troubles," he says.

Mr Fotiou won't say his age but is said to be in his eighties. He won't say whether he lives out the back, in the Olympia or somewhere else. He won't say whether he has family or friends who visit. While he mentions a pension, it's not clear whether he is getting one or has refused it.

And while recognising there are problems that need to be fixed - he mentions asbestos and pests, with the ceiling also collapsing - Mr Fotiou believes the council should let him re-open.

"Slowly, slowly, slowly," he says in broken English about how he wants to bring the Olympia back to life. "But not to rush me. How long it will take, no idea."

Inside the Olympia milk bar on Parramatta Road.Credit:Jessica Hromas

A proud and private man, Mr Fotiou keeps the shelves stacked with confectionery boxes and a glass-fronted cabinet with soft drinks. But on closer inspection, the boxes and cans are all empty.

Up the back is a blackened neon sign that shows what he once offered: "LATE SUPPERS, STEAK, SANDWICHES, SNACK BAR."

Mr Fotiou served those meals and drinks on Parramatta Road for more than 50 years.

With his late brother, John, he bought the building in about 1959. It had been operating as a milk bar for two decades already, next door to the Olympia De-Luxe Theatre, which later became the Stanmore Twin. It is now an apartment building.

The decorative tiled floor of the old Olympia Milk Bar in Stanmore.

Part of a much-loved history of Greek milk bars and listed on the NSW Heritage Register, the Olympia has a Facebook fan page with more than 3700 members.

But it has become a symbol of changing times, the isolation that aging can sometimes bring and the decline of Parramatta Road.

Mr Fotiou says he has been getting offers from developers but has no interest in selling.

The council spokeswoman says they brought a Greek-speaking staff member to meetings with him, identified a relative who was willing to help with repairs and another who offered him somewhere to stay and lined up a Multicultural Health NSW worker who works with Greek seniors in Marrickville to assist with whatever he needed.

"Unfortunately, Mr Fotiou has refused all these offers of assistance," she says "While council would be keen to further support [him], that support cannot be forced upon him."

He is also believed to have rejected offers from architects and builders to help with the restoration.

It's a scene from an inner west Waiting for Godot: the council won't let the milk bar re-open without extensive repairs; he won't start repairs until it opens.

So as tens of thousands of motorists rush past - and locals catch buses on the other side of the window - Mr Fotiou puts on his apron in the semi-darkness and spends the day with his memories.